A Great Day Adventure For Everyone: Newcomb’s Great Camp Santanoni
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By Anthony and Annette Batson
It’s hard to find an outdoor Adirondack adventure in which every member of your party can participate – but we’ve found one: a summer’s day out to Great Camp Santanoni in Newcomb.
From Grandparents to toddlers, hikers, bikers and canoeists and swimmers, this is for you.
Your day will include a tour by one of several young interns who hope to make a career in conservation and history, a walk through a Japanese inspired main lodge set among several buildings, the use of kayaks and canoes (for free) to tour the 2 mile by 2 mile Newcombe Lake, a swim and a picnic lunch, you’ll have packed for yourself.
To reach the camp, in what’s known as the Santanoni Preserve, it’s 5 mile trek. And this is where your adventure begins. There are several ways to get there: take a horse and wagon ride with Larry Newcombe, hike in, or pedal in on a mountain bike. If you don’t have your own set of wheels, the helpful folks at Cloud Splitter Outfitters. will meet you at the trail head parking lot and drop off and pick up bikes for you. We opted for hiking in, and took Larry’s wagon ride back. ($25 per person for a round trip or one way).
The hike in along a gravel road is easy and picturesque, under a shady tree canopy. About a mile in you’ll see the buildings which once housed the camp’s farming and dairy operation. There’s a diorama which lays out the milking sheds, ice house, piggery, chicken house and stables. You’ll cross several bridges. Try and identify the remnants of the old corduroy road – once a dirt path “paved” with wood slats -- as you make your way along a mostly flat path.
When you reach the camp you approach it from the back – nothing too impressive – this is actually by design as we learned from our guide as the layout of the camp was inspired by Japanese culture. As you enter the main lodge and take in the filtered view of the lake, you’ll be transported back in time to the late 1890s when Robert Pruyn, a banker from Albany, started building a private sporting preserve and family retreat on nearly 13,000 acres of land.
The family hired architect Robert Robertson to design and build their getaway and Robert Pruyn would have a large say in what he wanted. As a youngster, he had lived with his father in Japan. His dad was the America’s first foreign ambassador there.
Our guide, Wilkes Jordan, told us that during Pruyn's time in Japan, he grew to admire Japanese design and culture. Pruyn wanted a camp that existed in harmony with its natural surrounding -- instead of just a series of log structures, That’s why the shape of the Main Lodge resembles that of a phoenix in flight. There are many other comparisons to Japanese architecture which you can read about in Santanoni: From Japanese Temple to Life at an Adirondack Great Camp an Adirondack Architectural Heritage Book.
The pandemic has restricted access to many of the buildings. We were able to see the main lodge, it’s grand fire place and birch covered walls. On display was the Pruyn family’s original dining room set and a sideboard.
We learned the the room was built so it would be dark in the morning because Pruyn wanted to get the family and their guests outside. But in the afternoon the large room would light up as the sun shone in and reflected off those white walls. Behind the great room lies the large kitchen where you can see the original walk-in ice room and ice boxes, smoke room and pantries. The ice which kept provisions cool all summer was harvested on the property from their lake and ponds.
All of the timber and stone used during construction of this great camp was sourced on the property.
After the short tour we hiked along the lake shore, met a family who had spent three days camping and we chose a spot on a small sandy beach near a set of change rooms for a picnic lunch. Then we walked past the artist’s studio to the boathouse to find canoes, life vests and paddles.
We ventured out on the crystal clear lake for a real wilderness paddle. The last part of our adventure was the horse and wagon ride back to the trailhead and parking lot.
If you get the chance, ride up front and you will learn a ton of trivia about the camp from Larry Newcombe, the driver, who has been hiking and camping in the reserve for some 30 years.
Some tidbits we picked up:
The last owners, the Melvins from Syracuse, purchased the property – all 12,900 acres with the lodge and many outbuildings - in 1953 for $79,000. After the disappearance of their grandson, Douglas Legg, they put the whole estate up for auction in the mid 1970s. It was purchased by the state of New York for around $1 million dollars. (There’s a tragic back story about Douglas, which you can Google).
On the road to the lodge – a town road that used to access the Tahawus mines – you can see chisel marks in a huge boulder. This is probably where the massive stone fireplace mantle in the lodge came from.
In a large clearing on the right, which used to be the family vegetable garden, there are still asparagus and horseradish plants and an apple tree that continue to grow.
Back in the woods on the way to Moose Pond are the ruins of the Sugar House. Many maple trees in the area were tapped to produce maple syrup.
Pryne’s “gentleman’s farm” was a hobby allowing him to experiment with the latest farming techniques, such as separating dairy cows from the rest of the herd.
Pryne was a serious guy. Larry says legend has it he was kinder to his staff than to his own children.
Pro Tips.
If you take the horse and wagon ride round trip, you won’t have as much time at the Great Camp if you were to hike or bike. Do pack a picnic lunch and snacks and your bathing suit.
There is free camping at eight designated spots along the shore line.
For more information about visiting Camp Santanoni call AARCH at (518) 834-9328, Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm. You may also call the Santanoni staff directly at (518) 582-5472.
For information on the horse-drawn wagons (May through October), or to book a ride, contact: Larry & Pam Newcombe at Newcombe Farm – (518) 639-5534 or newcombefarmwagonrides@gmail.com
For the definitive history pick up a copy of Santanoni: From Japanese Temple to Life at an Adirondack Great Camp, by clicking here.
For more information about visiting Camp Santanoni call AARCH at (518) 834-9328, Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm. You may also call the Santanoni staff directly at (518) 582-5472.
For information on the horse-drawn wagons (May through October), or to book a ride, contact: Larry & Pam Newcombe at Newcombe Farm – (518) 639-5534 or newcombefarmwagonrides@gmail.com
Cloud Splitter Outfitters. https://www.cloudsplitteroutfitters.com/
